Flightskies: Horizon Seekers
by Weaponstar
Summary: The past has become the present to all of Hoenn as two legendary Pokémon wreak destruction for the second time. But for Lalunic and his family and crew, arriving from Johto, it's just a big storm that's crashed their ship. They aren't impressed.
1. Hello, Hoenn

**Prologue**

Groudon and Kyogre. Their legend was told throughout Hoenn and throughout the ages, but for most it was just that - a legend. Captivating words and striking drawings.

Until the thunder growled in the distance.

Until the sun's rays swept the shadows into hiding.

Rivers spilled over their banks, grassland was scorched to black stubble, beaches drowned, caves flooded, fires raged. The continent became a swampland, streaming with mud, while the ocean simmered and bubbled and clawed at the land's edge. Uncountable rainbows shone in the sky.

Those who were not at the heart of this battle can only imagine the forces that pounded at every inch of Sootopolis. But you did not have to have been there to have seen the light. The storm clouds parted above the city, like the crowd will part for those it respects, a green light spilling down to spotlight the warring Pokémon. And everybody heard the cry. Silence fell, though slowly, in the wake of that tearing, unignorable sound. The thunder retreated; the rain petered itself out. With a wan sun glimmering above, Groudon and Kyogre descended out of sight and another Pokémon - green, reptilian - could be seen taking to the air, flying back to its own home beyond the sky.

**One: Hello, Hoenn**

"Daddy! Wake up time, Daddy! Wakey wakey!"

"Nnm?"

Something batted his head three times, in rhythm.

"_Wake_!"

Lalunic dutifully opened his eyes. The frizz-haloed head of his daughter filled his vision. She was sitting on his chest, constricting airflow and, pokey limbed, making some bruises very angry.

"Hi, Ems," he managed.

"It's wet in here," Emy informed him.

"Mm," said Lalunic. "Yeah. Can you, um, get off please?"

Emy rolled off with a splash and Lalunic sat up, streaming water. They were just inside a cave and they were surrounded on all sides by large, spherical blue things with eyes.

"Oh god, what are they?"

Most of them were considerably bigger than his head.

"They're lovely!" Emy threw her arms around the nearest one, which gave her a lick. "They found the Pokémon, see," she added, pointing to three Poké Balls that were half sunk in the sludgy sand.

"Oh, well... Thanks, Blue Things." Lalunic scooped up the Balls, tugging up a sleeve to wipe them clean. "Hi, guys," he whispered. "Let you out in a bit, okay?"

"Where's Mummy?" Emy wanted to know.

"Um. I, er..." He glanced around, but no, no people. "Don't know. Have you not seen any of the others?"

"Noo..." Emy's brows drew together in exaggerated worry.

"Let's go find them, then!" said Lalunic brightly, bouncing to his feet. Emy held out her arms and he hoisted her up.

The blue things... well, they were Pokémon presumably. Hoenn natives. They rolled out of the way, bumping against one another like a bunch of marbles, as Lalunic made his way over to the mouth of the cave. A few sand-ringed boulders were all that separated them from the open sea, but it was the thrusting rock of land that overshadowed the area and made the picture. Some kind of building was catching the sun nicely right at the top, but, from down here, Lalunic couldn't be sure if there were more.

"Daddy, look!" Emy pointed to the sky.

A single Farfetch'd, leek grasped firmly in its feet, was flying in circles overhead.

"Farfetch'd! Hey!" Lalunic shouted, starting to wade farther out. "Hey, we're down here!"

"Down here, Farfetch'd!" Emy called.

Farfetch'd broke off from its circles, swooping down a little before giving two quacks and flapping off around the cave's mass.

Adjusting Emy's perch in his arms, Lalunic splashed after it. The cave's rock at his side, creating a shallow path to follow, curving around to reveal more sand, more boulders, and the ship - The ship was -

"Oh god," he breathed.

_Flightskies_ might as well have sailed headlong into a wall. The whole of the prow was a ripped up mess, scrunched against the cave's exterior like a nose pressed to an inviting shop window. Or... No, more like someone's head smashed against the window. Sand lay heaped against the hull all around and countless pieces of broken timber bobbed about in the shallows. Their flag hung from the mast top, lifeless in the nonexistent wind.

Where were the sky high waves that had dragged them off course? These gently lapping waters were acting infuriatingly innocent.

"Lalunic! Emy!"

"Mummy!"

Skiair was tearing toward them, Farfetch'd flapping at her shoulder. She ran right into them, landing them in a heap in the cloudy water.

"You're okay!" She pulled them both to her, smiling impossibly widely.

"Of course we are." Lalunic drew indigo locks, permanently salty, from across her face. "How are the others?"

"Fine." Skiair shook her head, catching her breath. "Bruised. Nalko and the boy have gone to see if there's life over there." She waved in the direction of the land and its shiny hat.

"Oh good." His eyes had found their back to the wounded ship. One of the crew was clambering about on the sloped deck. "Er, is it secure?"

"Very," said Skiair, darkly. "She's not going anywhere."

"Did you hear it, Mummy?" Emy asked.

"Hear what, Sweetie?"

"The cry. Like a Pokémon," Emy said. "It was loud. Did you hear it?" She peered up at Lalunic.

"Um, no, don't think so... Where'd it come from?"

"The storm."

Skiair started up. "Speaking of which, come and listen to the radio."

* * *

A/N: Hey, welcome to my first fanfiction. My name's Weapon and I'm not a boy, but that's not particularly important. It's the characters in this story you're going to be getting to know, anyways. =3

I guess I just want to throw something in here, like... 'Hope you enjoy!' And I hope my newbieness to this site won't bring about any annoyances for you.

And I absolutely have to thank the sites I used as references every ten minutes. Having Bulbapedia, Serebii and Marriland at my fingertips prevented this work from being riddled with nonfacts. Any further mistakes are entirely my own.


	2. Nice To Meet You

**Two: Nice To Meet You**

"...on a region-wide scale. Please keep the reports coming in. Considerable damage seems to have been done to all coastal towns and cities, and Lavaridge and Verdanturf are telling of the very earth moving and shifting beneath them. Communication with Fortree and the Weather Institute is proving difficult at this time. We're told the bridges are so damaged that access is being hastily restricted at all ends. Brighter news may be that Dewford has weathered the storm with an ease come by experience of being flooded, but we're now hearing that there is no sign of Pacifidlog on Routes 132 or 131. Searchers are rowing both east and west in search of it and its people. But I'm sure what we are all wandering is: What Happened? We now go to our correspondent in Sootopolis..."

"Good to know that wasn't typical Hoenn weather," Lalunic remarked.

"_What_ did they say they were searching for? A town or something?" Kalei, sitting cross-legged on the desk, was frowning at the battered radio.

"Think so."

"Maybe it's a town on a ship, like us," suggested Iyuan, with a black grin.

"Seems unlikely," said Kalei doubtfully.

"...that these three people may have been involved in awakening the mythical Rayquaza: Wallace, former gym leader of Sootopolis; Steven Stone, son of the Devon Corporation's president, and a young trainer named Emerald. Though we do not yet have all the details, I feel it is clear that they deserve thanks. Who knows what state Sootopolis - the whole of Hoenn - would now be in..."

"Daddy, I wanna play in the rock pools, can I?"

"Mm, if you like."

Emy slid off his lap, pulling his arm with her. "Come ooon."

"What, I have to come?" he asked, hiding a grin.

"Yeees."

"But I'm almost dry, Ems. Why don't you get Mummy to go?"

"No way." Skiair stared him down. "I'm not getting chased by Krabby, or whatever they have here."

"Blue things," said Lalunic knowledgeably, getting to his feet. "But they're very helpful. Oh, looks like we have company." He nodded over the side, to where four figures were making their way across from the land - Nalko, Rye, and two other people.

The crew descended the rope ladder to meet them, Emy clinging to Lalunic's neck.

"Is anyone hurt?" One of the two, a woman with a bulging shoulder bag, stepped forward, her eyes already scanning them for injuries.

"No, we're all fine," said Lalunic, smiling to prove it.

"Great. If you'll excuse me then, I must check on the Spheal." And she hurried off in the direction of the cave's mouth.

"Good to see you in one piece." Nalko gave Lalunic a grin. "This is Steven, guys. They're all pretty busy fixing the city up there, but he's taken the time to see if he can help us."

"Although, being unfamiliar with ship construction..." He gave a half smile. "I'm not sure how much use you'll find me."

"Kind of you, Steven," said Skiair. "Nice to meet you anyway. I'm Skiair, this - " She began pointing round at them all, orchestrating a chorus of greetings. " - this is Lalunic and Emy, Kalei, Iyuan, Vrina, and you've met those two."

"Pleasure to meet you all," said Steven genuinely - who Lalunic had to put at around his own age, despite the bluish-grey hair.

"I have a question," said Lalunic, glancing toward where the woman had disappeared from sight. "Spheal. That's the blue things over there?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Aha." He grinned. "We're from Johto, hence the ignorance."

"So I hear," said Steven. "Somewhere I hope to travel one day. And this is a gym?"

"_This_..." Lalunic's face fell as he again caught sight of the ship's flattened prow. "Um, this is Flightskies. Flightskies Gym. And we call ourselves Horizon Seekers, our theory being no one ever said you can't explore and run a gym at the same time. Of course that means we're not part of any league, but that's just fine for us."

Steven tilted his head to gaze up at the ship. "What an interesting concept. You must see so much that way... I hope you can get her seaworthy again."

"Yeeah, we can," said Lalunic, with confidence. "Just might take a bit."

~o~

Per their tourists' prerogative, they had a wander through the city: had their Pokémon checked over at the Pokémon Center, stopped to ogle the Space Center, left Iyuan comparing notes with a keen fisherman, and passed the gym on their way back to the ship (but nobody was there - they were all out helping with repairs).

Finding the Spheal woman fishing some of the smashed timber from the water around Flightskies, they hastily took over the job, making piles of the stuff beyond the tide's reach. It took no time with the seven of them at it.

Lalunic went to have a look at Flightskies' nose, clambering over the ripped boards and onto the rock they leant against.

"I get the impression," said Nalko, having followed him up, "that the water here's not in the habit of rising anywhere near high enough for us to drift out of this mud."

"Yeah, me too."

"I don't think she's broken up enough to take in water if it was. Would have to take a longer look below though. Anyway, can't rebuild her while we're right up against this rock."

"Mm."

"Maybe we could dig a channel."

"It's sand," Lalunic pointed out doubtfully. "Sand's not very good for digging in. Or did you not grow up on a beach? Digging a hole to the other side of the world always had to be a very organised procedure. We collected driftwood to use as shoring. One time everything collapsed and I nearly suffocated. Good times."

"Can't be sand all the way down."

"It usually turned into gravel. Don't know about here though." He patted the solid rock he sat on. "Might be undiggable."

"We'd have to go that way, then," said Nalko, nodding in the direction of the very distant Johto. "Out and round."

"Might still be undiggable," Lalunic mused. He stared down into the shallows. Shallow shallows. What they really needed was another big wave.

"I don't think Surf would do it," said Nalko.

Lalunic glanced up at him. "No. No, don't think it would."

~o~

By evening the water level had slunk even lower. The crew built a campfire on the exposed sands, setting about cooking the most interesting - and fresh - meal they'd had in a while.

~o~

Iyuan was on his way down from the city when he spotted it. Some kind of light, way out on the water. He waded out towards it, passing sand-choked trees. But the water deepened, taking more of his weight, weakening his balance, and he stopped still. Well, he could at least see what it was now. It was a house, the light burning from a window.

Somebody had followed him. As he turned back, they emerged from the trees' shadow - a girl, Poké Balls at her waist, apparently oblivious to the evening's chill in a crop top and shorts.

"Hi." She raised a hand. "Are you one of these people from the crashed ship?"

Iyuan inclined his head. "I am, though I think I'd rather be someone from a ship that didn't crash."

"And you're really a gym?"

"Really." He smiled in the dark. "But if you want to challenge the leader, you have to get past me first."


End file.
